[00:00] [Music]
[00:19] the uh uniform code of military
[00:23] Justice specifies Court marshal for any
[00:25] officer who sends a soldier into battle
[00:28] without a weapon
[00:30] there ought to be a similar protection
[00:32] for students because students shouldn't
[00:33] go out into life without an ability to
[00:37] communicate and that's because your
[00:39] success in life will be determined
[00:40] largely by your ability to speak your
[00:43] ability to write and the quality of your
[00:46] ideas in that
[00:49] order I know that I can be successful in
[00:52] this
[00:53] because the quality of
[00:55] communication your speaking your writing
[00:58] is largely determined by this
[01:00] formula it's a matter of how much
[01:03] knowledge you have how much you practice
[01:06] with that knowledge and you're inherent
[01:08] talent and notice that the tea is very
[01:11] small what really matters is what you
[01:14] know this point came to me U suddenly a
[01:18] few decades ago when I was skiing at Sun
[01:21] Valley I had heard that it was celebrity
[01:24] weekend and one of the celebrities was
[01:28] a was Mary L Reon famous Olympic gymnast
[01:33] perfect tens in the vault and I heard
[01:35] that she was an novice at skiing so when
[01:38] the opportune moment arrived I looked
[01:40] over on a novice slope and saw this
[01:43] young woman who when she became
[01:45] unbalanced went like that and I said
[01:49] that's got to be her that must be the
[01:52] gymnast but then it occurred to me I'm a
[01:55] much better skier than she is and she's
[01:57] an Olympic Athlete not only an ordinary
[02:00] Olympic Athlete an outstanding
[02:02] one and I was a better skier because I
[02:04] had the K and I had the p and all she
[02:08] had was the tea so you can get a lot
[02:11] better than people who may have inherent
[02:13] talents if you have the right amount of
[02:16] knowledge so that's what my objective is
[02:18] today and here's my promise today you
[02:21] will see
[02:22] some examples of what you can put in
[02:25] your
[02:26] armorium of speaking techniques
[02:30] and it will be the casee that someone of
[02:34] those examples some urtic some technique
[02:37] maybe only one will make will be the one
[02:40] that gets you the
[02:41] job and so this is a very nonlinear
[02:44] process you never know when it's going
[02:46] to happen but that is my promise by the
[02:48] end of the next 60 Minutes you'll been
[02:52] exposed to a lot of ideas some of which
[02:55] you'll incorporate into your own
[02:57] repertoire and they will ensure that you
[03:00] get the maximum
[03:02] opportunity to uh have your
[03:05] ideas uh valued and accepted by the
[03:09] people you speak with now in order to do
[03:12] that we have to have a rule of
[03:15] Engagement and that
[03:18] is no laptops no cell phones so if you
[03:22] could close those I'll start up as soon
[03:25] as you're
[03:26] done some people ask why that uh is a is
[03:29] a rule
[03:30] engagement and the answer is we humans
[03:34] only have one language processor and if
[03:37] your language processor is engage could
[03:38] you shut the laptop please if your
[03:40] language processor is engaged browsing
[03:44] the web or reading your email you're
[03:46] distracted and worse yet you distract
[03:49] all the people around you Studies have
[03:51] shown that and worse yet if I see a open
[03:54] laptop somewhere back there or up here
[03:58] it drives me nuts and I do a worse job
[04:02] and so that ensures that all of your
[04:04] friends who were who are paying
[04:06] attention uh don't get the performance
[04:08] that they came to
[04:10] have so that's it for Preamble let's get
[04:15] started first thing to talk about of
[04:17] course is how to
[04:24] start some people think the right thing
[04:27] to do is to start a talk
[04:31] a
[04:38] joke I don't recommend
[04:42] it and the reason is that in the
[04:45] beginning of a talk people are still
[04:47] putting their laptops away they're
[04:49] becoming adjusted to your speaking
[04:51] parameters to your vocal
[04:55] parameters and they're not ready for a
[04:57] joke so it doesn't work very well they
[05:00] usually fall
[05:01] flat what you want to do instead is
[05:04] start with empowerment
[05:08] promise you want to tell people what
[05:10] they're going to know at the end of the
[05:13] hour that they didn't know at the
[05:15] beginning of the hour it's an
[05:16] empowerment promise it's the reason for
[05:18] being
[05:20] here uh what would be an example oh I
[05:23] see at the end of this 60 Minutes you
[05:28] will know things about speaking you
[05:29] don't know now and something among those
[05:32] things you know will be make a
[05:33] difference in your life yeah that's an
[05:34] empowerment promise so that's the best
[05:36] way to
[05:37] start so now that I've talked a little
[05:40] bit about how to start what I want to do
[05:42] is give you some samples of tics that
[05:44] are always on my mind when I give a
[05:48] talk and first of these
[05:50] tics is that it's a good idea to cycle
[05:53] on the
[05:55] subject go around it go around it again
[05:59] go around
[06:00] again some people say tell them what you
[06:03] want to tell
[06:04] them tell them again and then tell them
[06:07] a third time as if
[06:10] people weren't intelligent but the point
[06:12] is the reason is well there are many
[06:15] reasons one of which is at any given
[06:17] moment about 20% of you will be fogged
[06:19] out no matter what the lecture is so if
[06:22] you want to ensure that the probability
[06:23] that everybody gets it is high you need
[06:25] to say it three
[06:28] times so cycling is one of the things
[06:30] that I always think about when I give a
[06:32] talk another thing I think about is in
[06:36] explaining my idea I want to build a
[06:38] fence around
[06:43] it so that it's not confused with
[06:45] somebody else's idea so if you were from
[06:49] Mars and I was teaching you about what
[06:51] an arch is I might say to you well
[06:53] that's an arch and that's not to be
[06:56] confused with some other things that
[06:57] other people might think is an AR this
[06:59] is not an AR
[07:01] Arch that's not an arch I'm building a
[07:04] fence around my idea so that it can be
[07:06] distinguished from somebody else's idea
[07:09] so in a more technical sense I might say
[07:11] well my algorithm might similar might
[07:14] seem similar to Jones's algorithm except
[07:15] his is exponential and mine's linear
[07:18] that's putting a fence around your idea
[07:19] so that people can not be confused about
[07:22] how it might relate to something
[07:25] else the third thing on this list of
[07:28] samples
[07:30] is the idea of verbal
[07:43] punctuation and the idea here is that
[07:47] because people will uh occasionally fog
[07:50] out and need to get back on the bus you
[07:52] need to provide some Landmark places
[07:55] where you're announcing that it's a good
[07:58] time to get back on
[08:00] so I might in this talk say something
[08:02] about this being my
[08:04] outline the first thing we're going to
[08:06] do is talk about how to start then we're
[08:09] going to deal with these four samples
[08:11] and among these four samples I've talked
[08:14] about the first idea that's cycling the
[08:16] second idea building a and now the third
[08:18] idea is build is verbal
[08:20] punctuation so I'm enumerating I'm
[08:23] providing numbers I'm giving you a sense
[08:26] that there's a seam in the talk and you
[08:28] can get back back on
[08:32] okay so now we're on a
[08:34] roll uh and since we're on a
[08:37] roll can you uh guess what fourth idea
[08:41] might be here an idea that helps people
[08:43] get back on the
[08:50] bus yes ask question ask a question yes
[08:55] thank
[08:57] you so ask a question
[09:05] and so I will ask a question how how
[09:07] much dead air can there be how long can
[09:09] I pause uh I counted 7 Seconds it seems
[09:13] like an eternity to me to wait and not
[09:15] say anything for 10 for 7 seconds but
[09:17] that's the the standard amount of time
[09:19] you can wait for an answer and of course
[09:21] the question has to be carefully chosen
[09:23] it can't be too obvious because then
[09:25] people will be embarrassed to say what
[09:27] the answer is can't be too hard because
[09:29] nobody will have anything to
[09:31] say so here are some sample eristics you
[09:34] can put in your armorium and build up
[09:37] your your repertoire of uh ideas about
[09:42] presentation and now if this persuades
[09:46] you that there is something to know that
[09:50] there there is knowledge then I've
[09:52] already succeeded because what I want to
[09:55] convince you of is if you watch the
[09:57] speakers you admire and feel are
[09:59] effective and ask yourselves why they're
[10:01] successful then you can build up your
[10:04] own personal repertoire and develop your
[10:06] own personal style and that's that's my
[10:08] fundamental
[10:09] objective and the rest of this talk is
[10:12] about some of the things that are in my
[10:13] arm inventorium that I think are
[10:16] effective so next thing on our agenda as
[10:20] we start to discuss these other things
[10:22] is a discussion of time and place so
[10:25] what do you think is a good time to have
[10:26] a lecture
[10:30] 11:00 a.m.
[10:37] yeah and the reason
[10:41] is most people at MIT are awake by then
[10:44] and hardly anyone is going back to
[10:47] sleep it's not right after a meal people
[10:50] aren't fatigued from this or that it's a
[10:52] great time to have a
[10:53] lecture so that brings me next to the
[10:56] question of what about the place and the
[10:58] most important thing about the place is
[11:01] that it be well
[11:08] lit this room is well
[11:11] lit problem with the other kinds of
[11:13] rooms is that we
[11:15] humans uh whenever the lights go down or
[11:18] whe whenever the room is dimly lighted
[11:20] it signals that we should go to sleep so
[11:23] whenever I go somewhere to give a talk
[11:25] even today the first thing I do when I
[11:27] speak to the audiovisual people is say
[11:30] keep the lights full
[11:33] up oh they might
[11:36] reply people will see the slides better
[11:38] if we turn the lights off and then I
[11:41] reply it's extremely hard to see slides
[11:44] through closed
[11:49] eyelids what else can you say about the
[11:52] place well the place should be
[11:57] cased and I mean that in the clal sense
[12:00] of like uh if you're robbing a bank you
[12:03] would go to the bank you know some some
[12:06] occasions before to see what it's like
[12:08] so there are no surprises when you uh
[12:10] when you do your
[12:12] robbery so uh whenever I go somewhere to
[12:15] speak the first thing I ask my host to
[12:17] do is to take me to the place where I'll
[12:18] be speaking so that there any
[12:21] weirdnesses I'll be able to
[12:23] um to deal with it uh sometimes it might
[12:27] require some intervention some time it
[12:29] just might require me to understand what
[12:31] the challenges are so when I came here
[12:35] this morning I did what I typically do I
[12:39] imagined that all the seats were filled
[12:40] with disinterested farm
[12:43] animals that way I knew that no matter
[12:45] how bad it was it wouldn't be as bad as
[12:50] that so uh finally it should be
[12:54] reasonably it should be reasonably
[12:56] populated
[13:04] it should
[13:04] be it should be the case that you know
[13:07] if there are 10 people in this Hall
[13:09] everyone would be wondering what's going
[13:11] on that's so much more interesting that
[13:12] nobody's here so you want to get a right
[13:15] siiz place that's doesn't have to be
[13:17] packed but it has to be more than half
[13:19] full so those are some thoughts about uh
[13:22] time and place next thing I want to talk
[13:25] about is uh subject of uh bo boards and
[13:29] props and
[13:37] slides well these are the tools of the
[13:40] trade uh I uh believe that this is the
[13:44] uh this is the the right tool for uh
[13:48] speaking when your purpose is uh
[13:51] informing uh the slides are good when
[13:53] your purpose is uh exposing but this is
[13:56] what I use when I'm informing teaching
[13:58] lecturing
[14:00] and there are several reasons why I use
[14:02] it for one thing when you use the board
[14:04] you have a Graphic
[14:09] quality it's the case that when you have
[14:11] a board then you can easily exploit the
[14:16] fact that you can use Graphics in your
[14:21] presentation so that's the graphic
[14:23] quality that I like and next thing I
[14:25] like is like a speed property
[14:30] the speed with which you write on the
[14:31] Blackboard is approximately the speed at
[14:33] which people can absorb ideas if you go
[14:36] flipping through a bunch of slides
[14:38] nobody can go that
[14:43] fast finally one great property of a
[14:46] board is that it's can be a
[14:52] Target many people
[14:55] who are novices at speaking find
[14:59] themselves uh suddenly aware of their
[15:02] hands it's as if their hands were
[15:05] private parts that shouldn't be exposed
[15:07] in public so right away they go into the
[15:09] pockets and this is considered insulting
[15:12] in some parts of the world or
[15:14] alternatively maybe the hands will go in
[15:17] in back like this I was once in a
[15:21] Convent in
[15:23] Serbia and uh my uh host U well we were
[15:27] as soon as we entered a nun came up to
[15:30] us and offered us a refreshment and I
[15:32] was about to say no thank you when he
[15:34] said eat that stuff or
[15:37] die it's a question of local custom and
[15:40] and politeness but then uh before
[15:44] anything happened there uh the nun
[15:46] pulled my hands off like this because it
[15:49] was extraordinarily insulting in that
[15:51] culture to have your hands behind your
[15:53] back so uh why is that well it's it's
[15:57] usually supposed that that's what that
[15:59] has to do with whether you're concealing
[16:00] a weapon so if your hands are in your
[16:03] pockets behind your back then um it
[16:07] looks like you might have a weapon and
[16:10] that's what I mean by The Virtue one of
[16:12] these virtues of the board now you have
[16:14] something to do with your hands you can
[16:15] point out the
[16:19] stuff I was once watching Seymour paper
[16:21] give a lecture I thought it was terrific
[16:23] so I went a second time first time to
[16:26] absorb the content second time to note
[16:28] the style
[16:29] and what I discovered is that papet was
[16:31] constantly pointing at the board and
[16:34] then I thought about a little while and
[16:35] I noted that none of the stuff he was
[16:38] pointing to had anything to do with what
[16:39] he was
[16:42] saying nevertheless it was a effective
[16:48] technique so that's a just a little bit
[16:50] about the the virtue of of of black
[16:52] boards and now I want to talk about
[16:55] props you know the custodians of
[16:57] knowledge about props s are the
[17:00] playwrights many decades ago I saw a
[17:03] play by Hinrich Ipson it was head of
[17:06] gabbler I remember vaguely there was
[17:09] about a woman in an unhappy marriage and
[17:12] her husband was in competition for an
[17:15] academic job with somebody else and he
[17:17] was going to lose partly because he was
[17:19] boring and partly because the competitor
[17:22] had just written a magnificent book by
[17:25] the way this is back in the days before
[17:27] they were copying machines and comp
[17:29] computers any anyhow as the play
[17:32] opens there's a pot bellied
[17:42] stove and in the beginning of the
[17:45] play uh the putt belly stove with its
[17:48] open door just has some uh slightly
[17:51] glowing
[17:53] Embers but the P stove is always there
[17:56] and it tension mounts in the play
[17:59] uh and you see this manuscript this prop
[18:02] that Ipson so artfully used you just
[18:05] know that something's going to happen
[18:08] because as the play goes on the Fire
[18:11] gets bigger and hotter and finally all
[18:14] consuming and you just know that that
[18:16] manuscript is going to go into that
[18:20] fire it's memorable thing it's what I
[18:22] remember about
[18:25] play so the play rights have got this
[18:27] all figured out
[18:29] uh but on the other hand they're not the
[18:31] only people who can use props here's an
[18:34] example of the use of a prop also due to
[18:38] sear paper he was talking about how it's
[18:41] important to look at the problem in the
[18:43] right way and here's an example that uh
[18:47] not only teaches that but makes it
[18:49] possible for you to embarrass your
[18:50] friends in mechanical engineering so
[18:53] here's here's what you do take this
[18:55] bicycle wheel you start it spinning and
[18:58] then you put some
[18:59] torque on the axle or
[19:03] equivalently you blow on the edge and
[19:06] the issue is does it go that way or does
[19:10] it go that way now the mechanical
[19:13] engineers will immediately say oh yes I
[19:16] see right hand screw and they'll put
[19:18] their fingers in this position but
[19:21] forget exactly how to align their
[19:23] fingers with various aspects of the
[19:26] problem and so it's you usually the case
[19:29] that they get it right with about a 50%
[19:33] probability so they um very fancy
[19:37] education gets them up to the point
[19:39] where they're equivalent to flipping a
[19:42] coin but it doesn't have to be that way
[19:45] because you can think about the problem
[19:47] a little differently so here's what you
[19:49] do you take some duct tape and you uh
[19:53] put it around part of the wheel like
[19:56] that and now you start to think about
[19:58] not the whole wheel but just the little
[20:01] piece that's underneath the duct tape so
[20:04] here that piece comes rolling over the
[20:05] top and at this point you blow on it
[20:07] with a puff of air forgetting about the
[20:10] rest of the wheel what happens to that
[20:11] little piece that's under the duct tape
[20:13] it must want to go that way cuz you bang
[20:15] on it like that it's already going down
[20:18] like that and what about the next piece
[20:20] same thing next piece same thing so the
[20:23] only thing that can happen is the wheel
[20:26] goes over like that and so now you'll
[20:28] never Wonder again because you're
[20:30] thinking about the problem in the right
[20:32] way and it's
[20:34] demonstrated by the use of a
[20:37] problem you can try this after we're
[20:43] done another example I like to remember
[20:47] is one from when I was taking
[20:49] 801 Alan Lazarus was the instructor at
[20:52] the time and he was talking about the
[20:54] conservation of energy kinetic and
[20:57] potential
[20:59] and there was a long wire in the ceiling
[21:02] in 26 100 attached to a much bigger
[21:05] steel Ball but one not un like this and
[21:09] Lazarus uh took the
[21:12] ball up against the wall like this he
[21:15] put his head flat against the wall to
[21:17] steady
[21:18] himself and then uh he let go and the
[21:21] Pendulum takes many seconds ago over and
[21:24] back and then uh gently uh kisses
[21:28] lazarus's
[21:30] nose and so you have many seconds to
[21:32] think this guy really believes in the
[21:35] conservation of
[21:41] energy um do not try this at
[21:45] home the problem is that uh first time
[21:49] you do this you may not just let go
[21:51] there's a natural human tendency to push
[22:01] so uh that's a little bit on a subject
[22:04] of
[22:23] props you know it's interesting whenever
[22:25] surveys are taken students always say
[22:28] more chalk less
[22:30] PowerPoint and uh why would that be uh
[22:34] props are always also very
[22:36] effective why would that be uh I'll give
[22:39] you my Lunatic Fringe view on this it um
[22:44] has to do with
[22:46] uh what I would call
[23:00] empathetic
[23:01] mirroring when you're sitting up there
[23:03] watching me right on the board all those
[23:05] little mirror neurons in your head I
[23:07] believe become actuated and you can feel
[23:10] yourself writing on the Blackboard and
[23:13] even more so uh when I uh talk about
[23:16] this steel ball going that way and this
[23:19] way you can you can you can feel the
[23:21] ball as if you were me and you can't do
[23:24] that with a slide you can't do it with a
[23:27] picture you need to see see it uh in in
[23:30] the physical world that's why I think
[23:33] that oh yes of course it's it's there
[23:35] there speed questions involved too that
[23:37] have to be separated out but I think the
[23:40] empathetic mirroring is why props and
[23:42] the use of a Blackboard are so
[23:46] effective
[23:48] well let's
[23:50] see oh yes there is one more thing by
[23:54] way of uh the tools and that has to do
[23:57] with the uh use of
[24:01] slides I repeat I think they're for
[24:04] exposing ideas not for teaching ideas
[24:06] but that's what we do in a job talk or
[24:09] conference talk we expose ideas we don't
[24:12] teach them so let me tell you a little
[24:15] bit about my views on that
[24:19] um I remember once I was
[24:23] um in um Terminal
[24:26] A had Logan airport I just come back
[24:29] from a really miserable conference and
[24:33] the flight was really horrible it was
[24:35] one of those that feels like an
[24:36] unbalanced washing machine and for the
[24:39] only time in my life I decided to uh
[24:42] stop on my way to my car and have a cup
[24:46] of coffee and relax a little bit and I
[24:48] as I was there for a few minutes uh
[24:50] someone came up to me and said uh are
[24:52] you Professor
[24:53] Winston I think so I
[24:56] said I don't know I guess I was trying
[24:59] to be funny in any event uh he said I'm
[25:01] on my way to Europe to give a job talk
[25:04] would you mind critiquing my
[25:06] slides not at all I said you have too
[25:08] many and they have too many
[25:11] words how did you know he said thinking
[25:14] perhaps I'd seen a talk of his before I
[25:18] hadn't uh my reply was because it's
[25:21] always true there are always too many
[25:23] slides always too many words so let me
[25:26] show you some extreme examples of how
[25:29] not to use
[25:33] slides well for this demonstration I
[25:36] need to be uh way over
[25:40] here um and uh when I get over here then
[25:43] I can start to say things like
[25:47] U one of the things you shouldn't do is
[25:49] read your
[25:50] transparencies people in your audience
[25:52] know how to read and reading will just
[25:53] annoy them also you should be sure that
[25:56] you have only a few words on each
[25:58] transparency and that the words are easy
[26:01] to read and I hope it driving you
[26:03] crazy because I'm committing uh all
[26:06] kinds of crimes the first of which is
[26:08] that there are too many words on this
[26:11] slide second of which is I'm way over
[26:13] there and it slides away over there so
[26:16] you get into this uh tennis match
[26:19] feeling of uh shifting back and forth
[26:22] between the slide and the speaker you
[26:24] want the slides to be uh condiments to
[26:26] what you're saying not the main event or
[26:29] the opposite way around so how can we
[26:31] fix this step number one is to get rid
[26:35] of the background junk that's always
[26:39] distraction uh step number two is to get
[26:41] rid of the
[26:42] words when I reduceed the the words to
[26:45] these then everything I
[26:47] read a previous time I'm not licensed to
[26:51] say because it's not on the slide I'm
[26:53] not reading my slides anymore but I'm
[26:55] saying what was written on the slides in
[26:58] a previous
[27:00] example so what else can we do to
[27:03] simplify
[27:04] this well we can get rid of the logos we
[27:07] don't need
[27:09] them
[27:11] simplification what else can we
[27:14] do get rid of the
[27:16] title now I want to talk to you about
[27:18] some rules for slide preparation I'm
[27:21] telling you the title doesn't have to be
[27:23] up there by reducing the number of words
[27:26] on the slide I'm allowing you pay more
[27:28] attention to me unless to what's written
[27:30] on the
[27:31] slide I mentioned it before we have only
[27:33] one language processor and we can either
[27:36] use it to read stuff or to listen to the
[27:39] speaker and so if we have too many words
[27:42] on the slide forces people in the
[27:44] audience to read this stuff and not
[27:48] listen student of mine did an experiment
[27:50] a few years ago uh he taught some
[27:53] students some
[27:55] um web based programming
[27:59] ideas half the information was on slides
[28:02] he said the other half and then for a
[28:04] control group he reversed it and the
[28:07] question was what did the subjects that
[28:11] is to say freshman in his fraternity
[28:13] what did the subjects remember
[28:15] best what he
[28:16] said or what they read on the
[28:20] slide and the answer
[28:22] is what they read on the
[28:25] slide when their slides have a lot of
[28:27] material on it they don't pay attention
[28:29] to the speaker in fact in the after
[28:31] Action Report one of the subjects said I
[28:34] wish you hadn't talked so much it was
[28:39] distracting well that last item is
[28:41] eliminate
[28:42] clutter I hear some clutter no no no
[28:46] reason even for those
[28:48] bullets so the too many words problem is
[28:51] a consequence of h a crime Microsoft has
[28:54] committed by allowing you to use funds
[28:56] that are too small
[28:59] so you should all have a sample slide
[29:02] like this that you can use to determine
[29:05] what the minimum Fun Size is that's
[29:07] that's easily leisurable shiv what do
[29:10] you think of
[29:13] those which size is right what's that
[29:17] size is right yeah minimum maybe 40 or
[29:21] 50 yeah he says 40 or 50 I think it's
[29:25] about right 35 is get too small not
[29:29] necessarily because you can't read it
[29:30] but because it because you're probably
[29:32] using it to get too many words on the
[29:36] slide what other crimes do we
[29:38] have well we have the laser pointer
[29:43] crime not for that I you know in the old
[29:45] days when we didn't have laser pointers
[29:47] we used wooden ones and people would go
[29:51] waving these things around
[29:54] and pretty soon it became almost like a
[29:58] the CH swirling contest so here's what
[30:00] here's what I recommended in the old
[30:02] days for dealing with this kind of
[30:07] pointer this example of used of a
[30:13] prop Jim glass up there saw this talk
[30:15] about 20 years ago and uh so oh yeah I
[30:18] remembered that talk that's the one
[30:19] where you broke the
[30:22] pointer it's amazing how props uh tend
[30:24] to be the things that are
[30:26] remembered well now oh we don't have uh
[30:29] we don't have physical pointers anymore
[30:32] we've got uh we got laser pointers
[30:35] that's a Wonder more people aren't
[30:37] driven into epileptic fits over this
[30:39] sort of stuff but here's what tends to
[30:43] happen look at that it's a lovely
[30:46] recursive picture and I can become part
[30:48] of it by putting that laser beam right
[30:51] on the back of my head up
[30:55] there and what do you see
[30:58] you see the back of my
[31:00] head I'm have no eye contact no
[31:02] engagement nothing I was sitting with a
[31:05] student watching a talk one day and she
[31:08] said you know what we could all leave
[31:11] and he wouldn't
[31:15] know so what happens when you use a
[31:17] laser pointer you can't use a laser
[31:18] pointer without turning your head and
[31:21] pointing it at something and when you do
[31:23] that you lose uh you lose contact with
[31:26] the audience you don't want to do it so
[31:29] what do you do if you need to need to
[31:31] identify something in your image and you
[31:33] don't want to point at it with a laser
[31:35] this is what you do put a little arrow
[31:37] on there and say now look at that guy
[31:39] number one at the end of Arrow number
[31:40] one you don't need to have laser pointer
[31:43] to do
[31:48] that the to heavy
[31:50] crime when people ask me to review a
[31:53] presentation I ask them to print it out
[31:56] and lay it out on a table
[32:01] when they do that it's easy to see
[32:02] whether the talk is too heavy too much
[32:06] text not enough air not enough white
[32:09] space not enough
[32:11] imagery this is a good example of uh
[32:15] such a talk way too
[32:17] heavy uh the uh presenter has taken
[32:20] advantage of uh small font sizes to get
[32:23] as much on the slide as he
[32:26] wanted lots of crimes here but uh the
[32:29] too heaviness the fact that it's too
[32:31] heavy is what I wanted to illustrate so
[32:34] here by contrast another talk one I gave
[32:37] a few years ago it's not it wasn't a
[32:38] deeply technical talk but I show it to
[32:42] you
[32:43] because there's air in
[32:45] it it's mostly pictures of things there
[32:49] are three or four slides that have text
[32:51] on them but when I come to those I give
[32:54] the audience time to read them and
[32:56] they're there because they might have
[32:57] have some historical significance the
[33:00] first slide with a lot of text on it is
[33:02] a extraction from the
[33:05] 1957 from the for the from the proposal
[33:07] for the 1957 AI conference at Dartmouth
[33:10] extraordinarily interesting event and
[33:13] that
[33:15] historical extraction from The Proposal
[33:17] helps drive that point
[33:19] home what else have we got here oh yeah
[33:23] your vocabulary word for the day this is
[33:25] an NAX Lon
[33:28] what that means is this is the kind of
[33:30] slide you can get away with exactly once
[33:33] in your
[33:35] presentation this is a slide that got
[33:37] some currency some years ago because it
[33:39] shows the
[33:41] complexity of um governing in
[33:44] Afghanistan by showing how impossibly
[33:47] complex it is it's something we you in
[33:50] the audience can't understand and and
[33:52] that's the point but you can't have many
[33:55] of these you can have one per work one
[33:57] per presentation one per paper one per
[33:59] book that's what it that's what epex Lan
[34:03] is and this is an example of
[34:05] it well I've shown you some crimes and
[34:08] so you might be asking do these crimes
[34:10] actually
[34:11] occur so
[34:14] um they
[34:20] do there's the hands in the pockets
[34:25] crime there's a um crime and time and
[34:29] place selection
[34:31] here this is how you get to the BTO
[34:34] theater first thing you do is you get
[34:36] down these steps over at the media
[34:39] lab then you cross this large open
[34:43] space then you turn right down this
[34:46] Corridor this point whenever I go in
[34:48] there I wonder if if there are torture
[34:50] implements around the corner and then
[34:52] when you get in there you get into this
[34:55] dark gloomy place so it's well- named
[34:58] what when they call it the baros theater
[35:00] because it's a place where you can watch
[35:01] a movie but it's not a place where you
[35:03] can give a
[35:06] talk now on a subject that doesn't
[35:09] happen here's a talk I attended a while
[35:12] back in
[35:13] stada notice that the speaker is H far
[35:17] away from the slides speaker is using a
[35:19] laser
[35:21] pointer and you say to me
[35:24] well what's happening here it's by the
[35:26] way the 80th 80th slide in the
[35:30] presentation notice that it stent with
[35:32] words this is the first of 10 conclusion
[35:36] slides so uh what's the audience
[35:40] reaction that's the sponsor of the
[35:43] meeting he's reading his
[35:46] email this is the co-sponsor of the
[35:49] meeting he's examining the lunch
[35:52] [Music]
[35:53] menu what about this person
[35:58] this person looks like he's paying
[36:01] attention but this because it's a still
[36:03] picture if you were to see a video what
[36:06] you would see is something like
[36:13] this so yeah it it it does
[36:17] happen well now uh that's a a quick
[36:21] review of of tools now I want to talk
[36:25] about some special cases
[36:30] we could talk a little bit about uh
[36:32] informing or to say it another way doing
[36:35] what I'm doing
[36:36] now but I'll just say a few words about
[36:39] that uh in that kind of in that kind of
[36:41] presentation you want to start with a
[36:42] promise like I did for this for this uh
[36:46] for this hour that we're going through
[36:47] now but then it comes to the question of
[36:49] how do you inspire
[36:51] people I've given this talk for a long
[36:54] time and a few years ago um uh our
[36:57] department chairman said would you
[36:58] please give this talk to uh a new
[37:01] faculty and be sure to emphasize what it
[37:04] takes to inspire students and strangely
[37:07] I hadn't thought about that question
[37:08] before so I started a survey I talked to
[37:11] some of my incoming freshman advises and
[37:14] I talked to senior faculty and
[37:16] everything in between about how they've
[37:19] been
[37:20] inspired what I found from the uh
[37:22] incoming freshman is that they were
[37:24] inspired by some high school teacher who
[37:26] told them they could do it
[37:28] what I found in the senior
[37:31] faculty they um were inspired by someone
[37:34] who helped them to see a problem in a
[37:36] new way and what I saw from
[37:39] everyone is that they were
[37:42] inspired when someone exhibited passion
[37:46] about what they were
[37:48] doing exhibited passion about what they
[37:50] were
[37:51] doing yeah so that's uh that's one one
[37:55] way to be inspiring
[37:57] it's easy for me because you know I do
[38:00] artificial
[38:02] intelligence um and uh how how can you
[38:05] not be interested in artificial
[38:06] intelligence right I mean if you're not
[38:08] interested in artificial intelligence
[38:10] you're probably not interested in
[38:12] interesting
[38:14] things so uh when I'm lecturing uh in my
[38:18] AI class it's natural for me to talk
[38:21] about what I think is cool and how
[38:24] exciting some new idea is uh so that's
[38:27] the kind of that's the kind of
[38:29] expression of passion that makes a
[38:31] difference uh while informing with
[38:34] respect to this question of of of
[38:38] inspiring oh yeah and of course during
[38:41] this promise phase you can also Express
[38:45] how cool stuff is let me give you an
[38:47] example of a lecture that starts this
[38:49] way I'm talking about resource
[38:52] allocation it's the same sort of stuff
[38:54] you would think of when you're s it's
[38:55] the same sort of ideas you would need if
[38:57] you're
[38:58] allocating a aircraft to a flight
[39:00] schedule or trying to schedule a factory
[39:02] or something like that but the example
[39:04] is putting colors on the states in the
[39:07] United States without any bordering
[39:09] states having the same color so here it
[39:14] goes this is what I show in the
[39:16] beginning of the class this is a way of
[39:19] doing that coloring and you might say
[39:22] well why don't we wait till it
[39:24] finishes would you like to do that no
[39:29] well we're not going to wait till it
[39:30] finishes because the sun will have
[39:32] exploded and consumed the Earth before
[39:34] this program
[39:36] finishes but with a slight adjustment to
[39:39] how the program works which I tell my
[39:41] students you will understand in the next
[39:43] 50 minutes this is what you
[39:48] get Isn't that cool you know you got you
[39:52] got to be you got to be amazed by stuff
[39:54] that takes a computation from longer
[39:56] than the lifetime of the solar system
[39:58] into a few seconds so that's what I mean
[40:03] by providing a promise up front and
[40:05] expressing some passion about what
[40:07] you're talking
[40:09] about well the last item in this little
[40:11] block here is uh uh it has to do with
[40:14] what people think that they do at MIT
[40:16] you ask a faculty what the most
[40:18] important purpose is and they'll say
[40:20] well uh the most important thing I do is
[40:23] teach people how to
[40:25] think and then uh you say oh that's
[40:28] great how do you teach people how to
[40:30] think Blank
[40:34] Stare no one can quite respond to that
[40:37] part that natural next question so how
[40:40] do you teach people how to think
[40:44] well I believe that we are storytelling
[40:47] animals and that uh we start to
[40:51] developing our story understanding and
[40:53] manipulating skills with fairy tales in
[40:55] childhood and continue on through
[40:58] professional schools like law business
[41:01] medicine engineer everything and we
[41:04] continue doing that throughout life so
[41:06] if uh that is what thinking is all about
[41:09] then when you want to teach people how
[41:11] to think you provide them with the
[41:12] stories they need to know the questions
[41:14] they need to ask about those stories
[41:17] mechanisms for analyzing those stories
[41:19] ways of putting stories together ways of
[41:21] evaluating
[41:22] how reliable the story is and that's
[41:25] what I think you need to do when you
[41:27] teach people how to
[41:29] think but that's all about education and
[41:32] uh many of you here not necessarily for
[41:36] that but rather for uh for this part for
[41:40] persuading which breaks down into
[41:42] several categories oral exams not shown
[41:45] job talks getting famous I won't say
[41:48] much about oral exams other than the
[41:51] fact that they used to be a lot scarier
[41:53] than they are today in the old
[41:56] days um
[41:58] reading the literature in a foreign
[41:59] language was a part of that and there
[42:01] was a a high failure rate and when you
[42:04] look at when you look back on those uh
[42:07] on those failures the most uh usual
[42:10] reason for people failing an oral exam
[42:12] is failure to situate and a failure to
[42:16] practice by situate I mean it's
[42:19] important to talk about your research
[42:20] and context uh this is a problem that's
[42:23] being pursued all over the world there
[42:25] hasn't been any progress before me in
[42:27] past 30
[42:28] years um everyone is looking for a
[42:31] solution because it will have impact on
[42:33] so many other things so that's situating
[42:36] in time and place and field and then as
[42:39] far as practice is
[42:40] concerned yes practice is important but
[42:43] that doesn't mean uh showing your slides
[42:47] to the people who share an office with
[42:50] the problem with that is that um if
[42:53] people know what you're doing they will
[42:54] hallucinate that there's material in
[42:56] your presentation that isn't there it it
[42:57] isn't
[42:58] there a variation on the scene by the
[43:01] way is your faculty supervisor is not a
[43:05] very good person to help you debug a
[43:07] talk because they in fact know what
[43:09] you're doing and they will in fact
[43:11] hallucinate there's material in your
[43:12] presentation that isn't there so you
[43:15] need to get together some friends who
[43:16] don't know what you're doing and have
[43:19] them well you start the practice session
[43:22] by saying if you can't make me cry I
[43:26] won't value you as a friend friend
[43:27] anymore and then when you get to the
[43:30] faculty uh on a uh oral exam it will be
[43:34] easy you see
[43:36] um difficulty the amount of flack you
[43:39] get from somebody is proportional to age
[43:41] the older somebody is the more uh the
[43:45] more they understand where they are in
[43:46] the world but but the young people are
[43:48] trying to show the old people how smart
[43:49] they are so so sobly vicious so whenever
[43:52] you have an opportunity to have an
[43:53] examining committee that's full of
[43:55] people with gray hair that's what you
[43:58] want well that's just a word or two
[44:00] about something I haven't listed here
[44:02] let's get into the subject of job talks
[44:05] so I was
[44:06] um sitting in a bar uh many years ago uh
[44:12] in uh San Diego I was a member of the
[44:15] Navy science board and I was saying with
[44:18] a couple of uh my colleagues on the
[44:20] board uh Dolores Eder from the
[44:22] University of Colorado uh she made me so
[44:25] jealous I could spit because she written
[44:27] 21 books and I'd only written
[44:29] 177 and then the other one was
[44:33] uh bill welon from the University of
[44:37] Texas he was a electrom magnetism guy
[44:40] and he know knew how to use rail guns to
[44:43] to drive steel rods through tank armor
[44:45] these are interesting people so I said
[44:48] um what do you look for uh in a uh
[44:51] faculty
[44:52] candidate and uh within a one microc
[44:57] Dolores said they have to show us
[45:00] they've got some kind of
[45:01] vision quickly followed by Bill who said
[45:05] they have to show us that they've done
[45:14] something oh that sounds good I said and
[45:18] then I said to them how long does the
[45:20] candidate have to establish these two
[45:23] things what do you think
[45:27] compare your answer to
[45:32] theirs 5
[45:35] minutes so if you haven't expressed your
[45:38] vision if you haven't told people that
[45:40] you've done something in five minutes
[45:43] you're you you've already lost so you
[45:46] you have to be able to do that and let
[45:47] me just mention a couple of things in
[45:49] that
[45:50] connection here which is you know the
[45:52] vision is in part a problem that
[45:54] somebody cares about
[45:58] and something new in your
[46:05] approach so the problem is understanding
[46:08] the nature of human intelligence and the
[46:10] approach is asking questions about what
[46:13] makes us different from chimpanzees and
[46:17] neandertals is it merely a matter of
[46:19] quantity or we just a little bit smarter
[46:21] in some continuous way or do we have
[46:23] something that's fundamentally different
[46:26] the chimpan Tendencies don't have and
[46:28] the Andals either and the answer is yes
[46:32] we do have something different we are
[46:34] symbolic
[46:35] creatures and because we're symbolic
[46:38] creatures we can
[46:41] um we can uh build symbolic descriptions
[46:44] of relations and events we can string
[46:47] them together and make stories and
[46:49] because we can make stories that's what
[46:50] makes us different so that's that's
[46:52] that's my stump speech that's how I
[46:55] start most of my talks on my my own
[46:57] personal
[46:58] research how do you express the notion
[47:02] that you've done
[47:04] something by listing the steps that need
[47:07] to be taken in order to achieve the
[47:10] solution to that problem you don't have
[47:13] to have done all of those steps but you
[47:14] can say here's here's what needs to be
[47:17] done an example here's what needs to be
[47:20] done we need to specify some Behavior we
[47:23] need to enumerate the constraints that
[47:25] make it possible to deal with that
[47:27] behavior we have to implement a system
[47:30] because we're engineers and we don't
[47:31] think that we've understood something
[47:33] unless we can build it and we've built
[47:35] such a system and we're about to
[47:37] demonstrate it to you today that would
[47:38] be an example of enumerating series of
[47:41] steps needed to realize the
[47:44] vision so then blah blah blah blah blah
[47:47] blah blah blah blah and then you
[47:49] conclude by you conclude by enumerating
[47:53] your contributions
[48:01] it's kind of mirror of of these steps
[48:03] and helps to establish that you've done
[48:05] something so that's a kind of general
[48:07] purpose framework for doing a technical
[48:11] talk
[48:12] now only a few more things left to do
[48:15] today uh getting famous is the next item
[48:18] on our agenda because once you've got
[48:20] the job you need to think a little bit
[48:22] about how you're going to be recognized
[48:23] for what you
[48:24] do so
[48:28] [Music]
[48:33] well first of all why should you care
[48:35] about getting
[48:37] famous I thought about this um in
[48:39] connection with
[48:41] a fundraising event I attended
[48:47] once fundraising event for raising money
[48:49] to save Venice from going underwater and
[48:51] having all of its art destroyed anyway I
[48:54] was sitting here
[48:57] and JC was sitting
[48:59] here that was uh Julia the late Julia
[49:07] Child and as the evening wore on more
[49:10] and more people would come up and ask
[49:13] Julia to autograph something or Express
[49:16] a a feeling that she had changed their
[49:19] life and it just happened over and over
[49:22] again So eventually I turned to Julia
[49:25] and I said Miss child is it fun to be
[49:29] famous and she thought about it for a
[49:31] second and she said you get used to
[49:34] it but you know what occurred to me you
[49:38] never get used to being
[49:40] ignored so it's you know it's it's
[49:43] here's a way to think about it your
[49:45] ideas are like your children and you
[49:47] don't want them to go into the world in
[49:49] rags so what you want to do is to be
[49:51] sure that you have
[49:52] these techniques these mechanisms these
[49:55] thoughts about how to present the ideas
[49:57] that you have so that they're recognized
[49:59] for the value that that is in them so
[50:02] that's why it's a legitimate thing to
[50:04] concern yourself with the with
[50:07] packaging now how do you get uh
[50:10] remembered well there's something I like
[50:12] to call Winston star and every one of
[50:15] the items I'm about to articulate has a
[50:19] starts with an
[50:21] S so if you want your presentation ideas
[50:24] to be remembered one of the things you
[50:26] need to do is to make sure that you have
[50:28] some kind of
[50:31] symbol associated with your work so this
[50:34] Arch example is actually from my PhD
[50:37] thesis many many years ago
[50:40] and in the course of uh my work uh at
[50:43] that time uh this work on Arch learning
[50:46] became mildly famous and I didn't know
[50:48] why it was only many years later that I
[50:51] realized that that work accidentally had
[50:53] all of the elements on this star so the
[50:56] first element is that there was a kind
[50:58] of symbol it's the arch
[51:04] itself next thing you need is some kind
[51:06] of
[51:09] slogan a kind of phrase that provides a
[51:12] handle on the work and in this case the
[51:14] phrase was one shot
[51:19] learning and it was one shot because the
[51:22] program I wrote learned something
[51:24] definite from every example that was
[51:27] presented to us so in going from a model
[51:30] based on this configuration to something
[51:33] that isn't an arch based on that
[51:34] configuration the program learned that
[51:36] it has to be on top one shot
[51:40] learning so that's a
[51:43] simple slogan now we need a
[51:50] surprise yeah the surprise is you don't
[51:52] need a million examples of something to
[51:54] learn you can do it with one example if
[51:57] you're smart enough to make use of that
[52:00] example appropriately so that was the
[52:02] surprise you can learn something
[52:04] definite from each
[52:06] example next item was a Salient
[52:12] idea now when I say Salient idea I don't
[52:15] mean important what I mean is an idea
[52:17] that sticks
[52:18] out
[52:20] uh some some thesis funnily enough have
[52:23] too many good ideas and you don't know
[52:24] what it's all about because which one is
[52:26] it it so you need an idea that sticks
[52:28] out and the idea that stuck out
[52:31] here was a notion of a near
[52:38] miss you see this is not an arch but it
[52:41] doesn't miss by much so it's a near
[52:44] Miss
[52:46] finally you need to tell the
[52:49] story of how you did it how it works why
[52:53] it's
[52:54] important so that's
[52:57] um a bit on uh how to not so much get
[53:01] famous but how to ensure that your work
[53:02] is
[53:04] recognized well that that we're almost
[53:07] finished because now we're we're down to
[53:09] this last item which is U how to
[53:12] stop and when we come to that there's a
[53:15] question of all right well what is the
[53:16] final
[53:21] slide and what are the final words
[53:30] so for the final slide let me give you
[53:32] some examples of
[53:36] possibilities how about this
[53:41] one well you might see that
[53:43] slide and
[53:47] uh think to yourself there are thousand
[53:51] faculty at
[53:52] MIT nice piece of work but not so much
[53:55] but it's only a tiny any piece of work
[53:57] if you divide by a
[53:59] thousand so when you show a whole
[54:01] gigantic list of collaborators at the
[54:03] end of a talk it's a kind of it's a it's
[54:05] it's it's a kind of let down because it
[54:07] suggests that nobody knows well did you
[54:09] do anything
[54:11] significant now you got to you got to
[54:13] recognize your collaborators right so
[54:15] where do you do that not on the last
[54:17] slide on the first slide all this was on
[54:20] the first slide these are the
[54:22] collaborators so you don't want to put
[54:23] them at the end you don't want a slide
[54:25] like this
[54:28] how about this
[54:29] one this is the worst possible way to
[54:32] end a
[54:33] talk because this slide can be up there
[54:38] for 20 minutes I've seen it happen it
[54:41] squanders real estate it squanders an
[54:44] opportunity to tell people who you are
[54:47] it's it's
[54:50] just what about this one
[54:56] I often see it I've never seen anybody
[54:58] write it
[55:00] down also it wastes
[55:05] opportunity oh my
[55:07] [Music]
[55:09] God even
[55:13] worse all of these slides do nothing for
[55:17] you they waste an opportunity for you to
[55:20] tell people to leave people with what
[55:22] you with who you
[55:25] are well well what about
[55:28] this this a good
[55:30] one it might seem so at first but here's
[55:34] the
[55:37] problem if you say these are my
[55:39] conclusions these are perfectly
[55:41] legitimate conclusions that nobody cares
[55:43] about what they care about is what you
[55:46] have done and that's why your final
[55:48] slide should have this
[55:50] label
[55:52] contributions it's a mirror of what I
[55:54] said over there about how job talks on
[55:55] to ought to be like a sandwich and the
[55:58] final Slide the one that's up there
[55:59] while people are asking questions and
[56:01] filing out it ought to be the one that
[56:02] has your contributions on
[56:04] it here's an example from my own stump
[56:08] speech yeah this is what uh I talk about
[56:11] a lot yes here are the things that I
[56:14] typically
[56:20] demonstrate and I wait for people to
[56:22] read it and then the final element there
[56:24] is this is what we get out of
[56:27] it so that's a example of a contribution
[56:31] line all right
[56:34] now what about the other part you know
[56:37] you got your final slide slide up there
[56:39] it's a contribution slide somehow you
[56:41] have to tell people you're
[56:43] finished so uh let's check out a few
[56:49] possibilities one thing you could
[56:51] do in the final words is you could uh
[56:55] tell a joke
[56:59] it's
[57:01] okay by the time you're done people have
[57:03] adjusted themselves to your voice
[57:05] parameters they're ready for a
[57:08] joke I was sitting in another bar this
[57:11] time in Austin Texas with a colleague of
[57:13] mine named Doug lenat and Doug's a
[57:16] fantastic speaker and so I said uh to
[57:20] Doug Doug you're a fantastic speaker
[57:23] what's your secret and he said oh
[57:27] I always uh finish with a joke and that
[57:29] way people think they've had fun the
[57:31] whole
[57:34] time so yeah a joke will work down
[57:38] there how about uh this
[57:49] one thank
[57:52] you I don't recommend it
[57:56] it's a weak move you will not go to hell
[57:59] if you conclude your talk by saying
[58:01] thank you but it's a weak move and
[58:02] here's
[58:03] why when you say thank you even worse
[58:06] thank you for listening it suggests that
[58:09] everybody has stayed that long out of
[58:11] politeness and that they had a profound
[58:13] desire to be somewhere else but they're
[58:15] so polite they stuck it out and that's
[58:17] what you're thanking them
[58:19] for so once wild Applause has started
[58:21] you can mouth a thank you and it's not
[58:24] there's nothing wrong with that but the
[58:25] last thing you do do should not be
[58:26] saying thank
[58:29] you now do you say to me well doesn't
[58:31] everybody say thank you well what
[58:33] everybody does is not necessarily the
[58:36] right
[58:36] thing and I'd like to illustrate how
[58:39] some talks can end without saying thank
[58:41] you I like to draw from political
[58:44] speeches but the ones that I've heard
[58:46] recently aren't so good
[58:49] so
[58:51] so I'm going to have to go go back a
[58:53] little bit so here's a Governor Christie
[58:57] he uh gave the U Republican keynote
[59:01] address one year uh this is the end of
[59:04] his talk let's see what he
[59:08] does and together everybody together we
[59:12] will stand up once again for American
[59:15] greatness for our children and
[59:17] grandchildren God bless you and God
[59:19] bless
[59:22] America that's some a classic
[59:25] benediction ending God bless you God
[59:28] Bless
[59:29] America now I I don't want to be
[59:31] partisan about this so I think I better
[59:33] switch to the keynote address in the Dem
[59:36] Democratic
[59:38] Convention I was delivered that year by
[59:40] by Bill Clinton who knows something
[59:42] about how to
[59:45] speak if that is what you want if that
[59:49] is what you believe you must vote and
[59:52] you must reelect President Barack Obama
[59:57] God bless you and God bless
[01:00:08] America now watch this let's go back a
[01:00:12] little bit and redo it what I want you
[01:00:13] to see is that at one point he seems to
[01:00:15] be almost pressing his lips together
[01:00:17] forcing himself not to say thank you and
[01:00:20] then there's another place where he does
[01:00:21] a little salute so watch for those this
[01:00:23] time
[01:00:24] around if that that is what you want if
[01:00:28] that is what you believe you must vote
[01:00:31] and you must reelect President Barack
[01:00:35] Obama God bless you and God bless
[01:00:38] America everybody's pursing his
[01:00:42] lips there's a
[01:00:46] [Applause]
[01:00:48] SL yeah I think that's pretty good now
[01:00:51] what are we going to take away from this
[01:00:53] well um I suppose I can conclude this
[01:00:56] talked by saying uh God bless you and
[01:00:58] God
[01:00:59] bless Institute of Technology but uh it
[01:01:03] might not work so well but what what you
[01:01:05] can't get out of this is you don't have
[01:01:06] to say thank you there are other things
[01:01:08] you can do and you know it's interesting
[01:01:10] that uh over time people figure this out
[01:01:12] and there's some stock ways of ending
[01:01:14] things so uh in the Catholic church in a
[01:01:18] good old Latin
[01:01:20] Mass it landed with it
[01:01:23] Miss EST
[01:01:27] which translates approximately to okay
[01:01:30] the mass is over you can go home
[01:01:33] now and of course uh at the musical
[01:01:36] concerts uh you know that uh it's time
[01:01:39] to clap not at the end of the song but
[01:01:42] rather when the uh conductor goes over
[01:01:44] and shakes hands with the concert Master
[01:01:47] those are conventions that tell you that
[01:01:49] the that the event is
[01:01:52] over so uh
[01:01:56] those are all possibilities for here but
[01:01:58] one more possibility and that is that
[01:02:00] you
[01:02:04] can salute the audience and by that I
[01:02:07] mean you can say something about how how
[01:02:11] much you value your time and a place so
[01:02:13] I could say well it's been a a great fun
[01:02:18] being here uh it's been uh fascinating
[01:02:21] to see what you folks are doing here at
[01:02:23] MIT I've been uh what stimulated uh and
[01:02:27] and provoked by the kinds of questions
[01:02:28] you been ask has been really great and
[01:02:31] and and I look forward to coming back on
[01:02:33] many occasions in the future so that
[01:02:35] salutes the audience you can do
[01:02:39] that well there it is um you know what
[01:02:45] uh I'm glad you're here and and the
[01:02:47] reason is by being here I think you have
[01:02:49] demonstrated an understanding that how
[01:02:52] you present and how you package your
[01:02:54] ideas is an important thing
[01:02:56] and I salute you for
[01:02:57] that and uh I uh suggest that you uh
[01:03:02] come back again and bring your friends
[01:03:06] [Applause]